Breeding Values

The KWPN offers her members information about their horses in the shape of breeding values. Breeding values is an estimation of what a horse passes on genetically. This estimation is based on all the information available to the KWPN about a horse. Naturally, that includes data from the sport, but also data from the pedigree, inspections, ability tests and performance test. As of 2022, the breeding values are moreover partly based on information retrieved from the DNA. 

What is a breeding value?

A breeding value is an estimation of the extent to which a parental animal passes on a certain quality to their offspring. There are breeding values for sport, movement, conformation, and health characteristics. In computing the breeding values, the individual horse is always compared to the current KWPN population. Dressage horses are compared to the current dressage population and jumper horses to the current jumper population. Gelder horses, harness horses and riding horses have breeding values that have been computed relative to the entire KWPN population. These breeding values indicate the expected breeding quality of the horse. Breeding values are therefore primarily important if you want to breed with a horse. Environmental factors such as rearing, management, rider and training may cause your horse to perform differently in practice than expected based on their genetic predisposition. This could turn out either positively or negatively but does not say anything about what the horse passes on to his offspring.

What do the numbers mean?

Breeding values follow the so-called normal distribution. The average of the population to which your horse is compared, is set at 100. For sport breeding values we use a standard deviation of 20. That means that for sport characteristics the horses of the average group have breeding values between 80 and 120. That makes up for 70% of the population. Only the 15% best horses have a sport breeding value that is higher than 120.
 

KWPN Database

You find the breeding values of a horse by searching the animal in the KWPN Database and then clicking on ‘Genetic Profile’ in the right-hand menu.

Inbreeding and relatedness

When choosing a stallion for your mare it is always wise to have a close look at inbreeding and relatedness. A pairing with a relatively related horse may lead to health problems.